This week’s thumbs-up to: Citi — for calling me when two charges showed up on my account that didn’t fit with my normal card usage. The charges were legitimate, but I really appreciate their caution, even though it inconvenienced my husband, who couldn’t figure out why the card was denied after placing two orders for…
Author: Dissent
Facebook IDs hacker who tried to sell 1.5M accounts
Robert McMillan reports: Facebook has identified the hacker named Kirllos who tried to sell 1.5 million Facebook accounts recently in underground hacking forums. According to the investigators at the social networking site, he’s guilty of both hacking and hyperbole. Kirllos was first spotted by researchers at VeriSign’s iDefense group a few weeks after he claimed…
Romanians charged in $182G bank fraud scheme
Amanda Pinto reports: Four Romanian citizens have been indicted on charges related to a multi-state ATM scam through which they allegedly installed “skimming devices” and pinhole cameras in order to steal customers’ banking information. Two of the men employed the scam at People’s United Bank in Madison in September 2009, and used the information to…
AU: Privacy concerns over unresolved health ID plan
Ian Townsend reports: After Tuesday’s budget, the Government was at pains to make people feel they would be in control of their electronic medical records if they opted into the system when it started in 2012. Health Minister Nicola Roxon described it as being like banking online where you could access your statement and details….
UCSF employee charged with wire fraud
Henry K. Lee reports: A UCSF Medical Center employee has been charged in federal court with wire fraud for allegedly using the Social Security numbers of fellow workers to complete online health surveys so that he could receive hundreds of $100 vouchers. From January to April, Cam Giang of San Francisco used other UC employees’…
Laptop stolen from VA contractor contains veterans’ personal data
Bob Brewin reports on a breach that I don’t think we knew about here: A laptop belonging to a contractor working for the Veterans Affairs Department was stolen earlier this year and the personal data on hundreds of veterans stored on the computer was not encrypted, a violation of a VA information technology policy, said…